LATEST OUTDOOR GUIDES
Keep up to date with the latest guides, activities and resources from Pure Bushcraft. Explore new articles covering outdoor skills, survival, Scout activities, camping, navigation, knots, fire safety and practical skills.
Our latest posts are designed to help Scouts, youth groups, leaders and anyone interested in outdoor learning develop practical knowledge and confidence. From new activity ideas and survival skills to useful how-to guides, check back regularly for the latest resources.
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How to Ration Water and Food Outdoors
When you’re outdoors for longer than expected, one of the most useful skills you can have is knowing how to manage the food and water you’ve already got. Running out is rarely caused by one big mistake. More often, supplies gradually disappear because you’re drinking whenever you feel like it, eating larger portions than planned…
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How to Use Water Purification Tablets
Water purification tablets are a useful way of treating water when you’re camping, hiking or travelling somewhere that you cannot rely on the water supply. They are small, lightweight and easy to carry, which makes them particularly useful as a backup to a filter or as part of an emergency water-treatment kit. The important thing…
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How to Use a Water Filter
A water filter can make collecting water outdoors much easier, particularly on longer walks, camping trips and adventures where carrying all the water you need isn’t practical. Rather than carrying several litres from the start, you can collect water from a suitable source and filter it as you need it. However, using a filter isn’t…
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How to Carry a Fire-Lighting Kit
A fire-lighting kit doesn’t need to be complicated and it doesn’t need to have too much equipment. In fact, one of the best kits is small enough to keep in a pocket or a corner of your rucksack and contains a few different ways of getting a fire started rather than relying on one single…
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How to Light a Fire in the Rain
Lighting a fire in the rain is less about having a special firelighting trick and more about preparation. If you simply collect a pile of wet wood, strike a match and hope for the best, you’re likely to end up cold, frustrated and surrounded by smoke. The secret is to find the driest material you…
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How to Light a Fire With a Firesteel
Affiliate disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you purchase something through one of our links, we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. A firesteel is one of the most useful fire-lighting tools to learn because it can produce a hot shower of sparks even when matches and lighters aren’t practical.…
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How to Build a Snow Shelter
Snow can look like one of the least useful materials for building a shelter, but when it is deep enough and properly packed, it can provide surprisingly good insulation. A well-built snow shelter can block wind and trap warmth far more effectively than you might expect for something so cold. There are several types of…
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How to Stay Dry and Manage Sweat Outdoors
Staying dry outdoors is not simply a matter of putting on a waterproof jacket. Rain is an obvious source of moisture, but sweat can leave you just as wet, particularly when you’re walking uphill, carrying a heavy rucksack or working hard around camp. The trick is to manage both at the same time. You want…
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How to Use a Bivvy Bag or Emergency Blanket
A bivvy bag and an emergency blanket are both useful pieces of outdoor equipment, but they have different important jobs. A bivvy bag is designed to go around you and your sleeping system, while an emergency blanket is much more flexible and can be used to reflect heat, provide some protection from wind and rain,…
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How to Build a Debris Shelter
A debris shelter is a simple woodland shelter made mainly from natural materials such as branches, leaves, moss and other fallen vegetation. It is one of the more interesting shelter-building skills to practise because the materials are all around you, but making a shelter that actually keeps you warm and reasonably dry takes more than…
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